Modular jack connectors or connector assemblies are well known in the telecommunications industry and have been adapted for mounting to printed circuit boards. These connector assemblies are typically used for electrical connection between two electrical communication devices. There are basically two ways to mount a connector assembly to a printed circuit board, namely surface mounting in which terminals engage soldering portions on a planar surface of the substrate and through-hole mounting in which the terminals pass through apertures in the printed circuit board. For some connector assemblies, the terminals are formed from the same electrically-conductive member as the contacts and such an electrical member is referred to herein as a contact/terminal member. In this case, the terminal portion of each contact/terminal member would engage a respective soldering portion on the planar surface of the substrate.
One recurring problem with surface-mountable connector assemblies has been to achieve co-planarity of the terminals or the terminal portions of all of the contact/terminal members in the connector assembly. The terminals or terminal portions are designed to engage solder regions of a planar substrate onto which the connector assembly is mounted. It is important that each of the terminals or terminal portions engages the respective solder region in order to ensure proper electrical connection between the same and the substrate because if the terminals or terminal portions are situated in different planes, problems may arise during the soldering to the printed circuit board resulting in improper or inadequate electrical connection.